10 The Princess

June, 2052. It's been six months since Alagarassi got herself tested and accepted into The Establishment.

The sound of a violin filled the cold room with a sense of nostalgia, longing and even comfort. It was a pleasant sound that seemed as natural as breathing.

A silver haired woman stood seriously with her eyes closed. Her hands moved in rhythm as she held the bow to the violin.

She was art in motion. Every movement was graceful and even among the many beautiful and talented people in the world, she shined brighter than anyone else.

Her fluid motions were precise and each stroke of the bow against the strings of the violin were calculated but the emotions behind the song were overwhelming.

I didn't need to think about what problem troubled her as she was recently disinherited by the Salvador Family. It was a tragic fall from grace but she made it feel like it wasn't anything worth noting.

Thinking back to how I met her, I found it funny how I thought of her as a mere dimwitted noble girl who tried to cozy up to me. She was arrogant but her confidence was backed up by her abilities but I failed to see that at first.

I eventually learned that the silver-haired woman with sky blue eyes was someone I could comfortably call a peer. She was a member of the Salvador family from Spain while I am member of the Windsor family from the United Kingdom.

It made me happy to think that I could finally have a friend who could stand beside me as an equal. It didn't hit me until much later after her incident at Oxford that she was someone who was beyond my reach.

People were talking behind her back about how she was a violent and bloodthirsty villain who harmed her Professor because he failed her.

They were labelling her as a tyrant but I knew the truth. She harmed him because he exploited the weaknesses of those who weren't born as lucky as we were.

The intelligence agencies my family assigned to lead the investigation on the Oxford incident all said the same thing: The professor tried to proposition Alagarassi but she had done her own investigation and meted out justice in her own way.

I thought that she was an amazing person and that I wanted to genuinely be her friend. Unfortunately, she just coldly looked at me when I tried to approach her. She scoffed at my offer for a handshake and coolly said, "I have no need for a caged bird. Go home."

The was the first time anyone had ever talked to me like that but strangely enough, I didn't find her displeasing. In fact, it was quite the pleasant experience for me.

I simply stared at her at the time and laughed, "How do you say things like that with a straight face?"

Her eyes widened at my question but she soon regained her calm. She gently flicked me in the forehead and chided me, "You're a strange one, Everett."

I stuck my tongue out at her and that was how we became friends. I thought that the life of a royalty might not be so bad if I had someone like her on my side.

I'd eventually have to marry out someone to strengthen the family's ties but I kept thinking to myself that everything was going to be fine because I now had a friend who could stand beside me.

It was really funny because I always thought that I would have to find someone worthy to stand beside me but it wasn't until recently that I realized that it was I who should have been tested and not her.

As I spent more time with her, I started to learn more and more about how little I knew about her.

She had her own values and she rarely interacted with other people. In fact, it might be fair to say that Alagarassi was a lone wolf who needed nobody. She was too dazzling and too mighty that people had simply labelled her an arrogant villainess and ignored or even feared her.

She was as misunderstood back then as she is today, though I do have to admit that her terrible habit of picking up women is something that irks me but it's not my place to complain.

I could see her back swaying as she played the violin with a serious expression on her face. Her notes were open in front of her and the title simply read '14 Romances, Op. 34: No 14 – Rachmaninoff'

It wasn't a particularly glamorous piece but it extremely expressive and I could imagine a rich and melodic piano playing behind the sounds of her violin.

A faint crease formed on her beautiful brow but she kept playing.

I simply stared at her in awe, taking a sip of the delicious wine she offered to me as payment back when she demanded her family to sell her to me.

I remember being flabbergasted at the time but it was truly a series of baffling events one after another. It hadn't even been a few years since the Oxford incident and now she's gone and took down a cell of violent human traffickers and even murdered her testing instructor.

As soon as she came home, smelling of another woman at that too, she called up her family butler and demanded to be sold to the Everett house.

It took a few days for the Salvador family to reply but the letter that came with her official documents stated that she was originally planned to be sold off anyway so this wasn't anything unpleasant for them.

Attached to the incredibly arrogant letter was a Swiss bank account with payment instructions.

I lazily waved my hand and the matter was settled in a matter of days. With that, I had purchased Alagarassi's right to be independent at the measly cost of $150,000,000,000.

It was an incredible sum for sure and I never really intended to ask her to pay me back or anything but she stubbornly refused repeatedly. I knew her personality so I simply asked her to live with me. It was more of a selfish request than anything but she readily agreed.

She's given me so much of her love and I find myself wondering what would I do if I got pregnant with her child?

I shook my head at my own foolishness. We're both women and though I say we've made love countless of times at this point, it's only ever been her giving and never taking.

It was vexing for me to think about and I've seriously even considered if she had ever taken a vow of celibacy but I'm sure that something like that has never happened as I have her entire life chronicled in a ledger given to me by her father.

It was completely detailed down to the first time she's ever had her time of the month to the first time she had ever kissed another person. I knew everything about her but..

Her radiant visage seemed to blinded me as I raised the wine glass to my mouth, 'I really do know nothing about her.'

She screamed tenacity, resilience, arrogance and nobility but I felt that her heart seemed more like Clair de lune. She was a quiet and melancholic person who longed for something she could not reach.

It pained me to see her like that but I understood her to a certain degree. After all, like I said, it wasn't she who needed to be worthy but it was I who needed to be worthy to stand beside her.

I gently laid down the glass of wine, now emptied, on the table in front of me as I continued to watch her in peace.

I hummed along her violin and when she noticed, she gave me a half-smile and played with more candor and vigor. I smiled to myself when I thought that she could only be honest with her actions. Her words were always distorted, as if she was holding back something inside of her.

As she finished playing the song, her eyes opened to reveal two crimson irises that were bright and filled with life. Mysterious, noble and evil. It was the perfect balance of the concepts of 'good' and 'evil' and I thought that she was the perfect representative of true neutrality.

She smiled at me and her eyes looked into mine. She picked up my glass and took a sip. She savored the flavor of the wine and quipped, "I was good, right?"

I rolled my eyes at her and laughed. "Yes mistress. You were excellent."

She picked up the violin a few weeks after her lively trip to the Velvet Room and after six months, I could no longer tell the difference between her playing and prana musicians who were prodigious violin players.

In short, she was now considered a prodigy on par or even further ahead of the greatest musicians of our current age. It was truly baffling and quite frankly terrifying. Of course, I loved this side to her as well.

She smiled at my remark and gently caressed my cheek with her hand. She was warm.

Alagarassi sat on the other end of the couch. She gently pat her toned and thick thighs and gestured for me to come over.

I smiled at her and happily complied. After all, Mistress Alagarassi's thighs were the best.

I laid my head on her thighs and I took in her scent. Being near her gave me a sense of security and relief. She was home for me.

As if pondering something, she put the glass of wine back on the table and asked me seriously, "When did you turn into a lesbian, your highness?"

I sometimes wonder if she was fully sound. She was a prodigy amongst prodigies but she could feel a bit stupid sometimes, too.

"I'm not a lesbian, Assi."

She seemed to smile at my usage of her nickname. She played with my hair and sighed, "Neither am I but here we are, acting like a bunch of newlyweds."

I puffed up my cheeks in protest, "But aren't we? I even paid for your dowry and everything."

She seemed troubled by my joke as she frowned. "I told you. Once the harvest comes, I'll pay you back." She took a large swig of the wine and added, "With interest, even."

"I wouldn't like that, Mistress." I grabbed the wine glass from her hand, "I was just kidding."

I stood up and placed my arms around her shoulders and held her close to me. "You just worry about what you need to worry about." I pulled her in for a hug. "Besides, my mother agrees to our union."

"What? Can you say that again?"

I smiled at her, "I told my mother that I was living with another woman and that she makes me happy every night with her loving." I raised my eyebrow and questioned her, "Is that a problem, Mistress?"

"Ara, that's not a problem. If the mother says the food is ready, then the food must be eaten."

I directed a questioning gaze at her, "What food?"

"You."

I instantly felt some deep instinctual semblance of fear as the gaze she was giving me was akin to that of a Hawk eying its prey.

"Time to dig in."

She locked her lips with mine. It was a fun and pleasurable night again here at our little love nest.

The Princess – End.